Confidence propels Falcons

Bushland quarterback Taylor Cornelius, left, and head coach Steven Flowers and the rest of the Falcons will play Slaton tonight in a Class 2A bidistrict playoff game at Happy State Bank Field at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium.

Gillette is the talented senior Falcons wide receiver who has caught a hefty 57 passes for 618 yards. Gillette simply reminded Coach Flowers that the majority of this team had been running the same four plays since seventh grade and why not stick to those and keep performing them at the highest level.

“So we more or less simplified things,” Flowers said. “It makes sense. Sometimes you have to realize less is more.”

Since that Friday the 13th loss to Dalhart, the Falcons offense has been far from unlucky. Bushland has piled up scores of 46, 49, 41, 69, 48 and 56 points in going 6-0.

That’s cranking out 51.5 points per game.

The 6-foot-6, 200-pound senior quarterback Cornelius is the trigger man to this scoring machine of offense, which runs off plays at a quick pace.

Cornelius has completed 223-of-338 passes for 2,902 yards and 36 touchdowns. He also has run for 389 yards and scored seven touchdowns, continually frustrating opponents with a knack for keeping plays that seem headed nowhere alive and into positive yardage.

Cornelius said sitting with 1-2 record back in September wasn’t a good thing.

“I think we just got a little confidence after the first couple of wins,” Cornelius said. “And then our chemistry really came together. It just clicked. Practice got more up-tempo and everybody started buying in to what we were trying to do.”

What Bushland will attempt to do tonight is advance to the area round for the second consecutive year against a 5-5 Slaton squad that’s no slouch on offense, averaging 389.1 yards per game.

“Slaton has gone toe-to-toe with pretty much everybody they have played,” Flowers said. “We aren’t looking at this like a No. 1 (seed) vs. a No. 4.”

How Bushland looks at things these days is a far cry from the morning of Sept. 14.